Gone GolfingTrial Lawyer Mickey Morey Takes His Game to a New LevelBy Cliff Collins

Mickey Morey

At one time or another, most avid golfers have daydreamed of
teeing it up alongside the pros in a national tournament.

Last summer, Lake Oswego’s Mickey Morey actually
did it. The plaintiffs’ trial lawyer qualified for and played
in the nation’s most prestigious event for golfers who are 50
or over: the U.S. Senior Open. "It was a dream come true," he
says.

A weekend golfer most of his life, Morey had reassessed
things when he turned 50 in 2001. He was in good shape and figured
he could compete with others his age and older.

"I really started working on my game," he says.
He took lessons and practiced diligently. He then began playing competitively.
Three years later, he was a medalist at the Oregon Senior Amateur,
ranked third in the senior division and made the Hudson Cup team, comprised
of the best amateur and professional golfers in the state.

Last summer, Morey tied for first with a Canadian pro
in a U.S. Senior Open qualifying tourney at Waverly Country Club, beating
out 56 other players for a spot in the Open.

"His golf game got significantly better in the last
few years," observes Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey
S. Jones, a friend of Morey’s since both worked together in the
early 1980s in the Multnomah County district attorney’s office. "He
went from being a very good amateur to one of the best amateurs in
the state."

Finding a Legal NicheMorey was born in Oak Park, Ill., but from babyhood grew
up in Santa Monica, Calif. He played tennis and golf in high school,
and went on to play on the golf team at Pacific University in Forest
Grove after his younger brother and a friend moved to Oregon and encouraged
him to follow.

A business major at Pacific, Morey was influenced to
go to law school by another brother who was a lawyer in Tucson, Ariz.,
and from taking a college class led by a practicing attorney. At Lewis & Clark
Law School, he did well in moot court, and decided to become a trial
lawyer. After passing the bar, he joined the Multnomah County district
attorney’s office, where he worked in the assaults unit, specializing
in prosecuting rape and child sex-abuse cases.

After spending three years with the county, he joined
the law firm Holmes, DeFrancq & Schulte. In 1984, Morey became
one of the first lawyers in Oregon to pursue compensation for abuse
survivors, representing a young woman who had been sexually abused
by her stepfather since childhood. The case, tried in Benton County,
received a $500,000 verdict, a substantial sum at the time, and became
a milestone in Morey’s career.

"That was one of the things that put me on the map
as a lawyer doing these kind of cases," he says. By 1989, Morey
had enough work to open his own firm. Since then, he has represented
victims of sexual abuse in Oregon and other Western states, and participated
in over 100 jury trials. Rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell, he has co-authored
a handbook, spoken before victims’ advocacy groups, and written
several articles on sexual abuse litigation.

Morey took his first case against the Archdiocese of
Portland in 1993, and has represented many men who were sexually abused
by Roman Catholic priests. He also has advocated for clients against
the Episcopal Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
the Salvation Army, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the United Methodist
Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses. In addition, he handled cases
for clients abused by physicians, psychologists, police officers, prison
guards and schoolteachers.

"The work was very emotional, very personal," he
admits. "People will say lawyers should not get personal (with
their clients), but you can’t do the kind of cases I took and
avoid that. Sometimes it was hard on me. I do think I had a good ability
to leave my work at the office."

Some of his clients have become friends of his family,
and even though he no longer is taking new cases, he still fields calls
from former clients when they are seeking help for legal matters, and
refers them to other attorneys.

"I feel like I had as rewarding a career as a lawyer
can have," he says. "I feel really fortunate that I was able
to do those things for those people, and I was good at it. I’m
one of those people who love people, love life, really enjoy what I
do."

Morey’s personality is effusive, positive and upbeat,
confirms Jones. "He’s very enthusiastic. People like to
be around him. He’s just one of those people that never seems
to be down."

Hitting the LinksGolf began
to take on more importance for Morey in the past six years or so. He
and his wife, Leslie J. Mackenzie, a lawyer with Reinisch, Mackenzie,
Healey, Wilson & Clark, aimed for 2007
as the year they would retire, after their two children were grown.
She retired last June, and Morey is winding down his law practice.
He wants to do volunteer work, learn to speak Spanish fluently, and
learn guitar and the piano.

And he is competing in as many Oregon Golf Association
events as he’s eligible for. He has won three club championships
at Oswego Lake golf course, and will play in England this summer in
the British Senior Amateur.

But playing in the 2007 Senior Open, held at the Whistling
Straits course in Kohler, Wis., always will be a highlight of his life.
Morey perhaps felt a little like Walter Mitty, striding up the fairway
with green-shirted "Team Morey" compatriots from home cheering
him on. He signed autographs for kids, rubbed shoulders with several
tour stars, and scored some birdies and even an eagle in his practice
rounds.

Once the tournament proper started, Morey was nervous
and didn’t make the cut to play on the weekend, but had great
fun all week anyway. "I wish I’d played better and made
the cut, but it was such an amazing experience."

ABOUT THE AUTHORCliff Collins is a Portland-area freelance writer and a frequent
contributor to the Bulletin.